Bo Rothstein – The Shadow of the Swedish Right

Abstract

In the recent election to the Swedish Parliament, the Sweden Democrats, a right-wing populist and nationalist Party, gained 20.5 percent of the vote, making it for the first time the second-largest party in the country. The election resulted in a narrow win for the right-wing bloc that is now in government. In international rankings of factors such as “happiness,” social trust, population health, quality of democracy, gender equality, economic prosperity, etc., Sweden is a very successful society. This article attempts to answer the question of why, given these rankings, such a large part of the electorate voted for an antiestablishment, populist, right-wing, and illiberal party.